A few days ago, Xiaomi started teasing a “tab” announcement in India leading many to speculate – or at least, hope—that it was “finally” gearing a tablet for its biggest market. A real Android tablet, that is, something on the lines of a Pad 5 or Pad 5 Pro, even. A dedicated landing page was created ahead of today’s announcement. There was a short teaser video, too, on the same page highlighting quotes from supposed fans all urging Xiaomi to launch a tablet in unison. Can you really blame them, you’d think. It’s been nearly seven years.
| OnePlus 10 Pro 5G effect: Xiaomi tries to steal OnePlus’s thunder, announces 12 Pro coming soon to India
Turns out all this was part of an elaborate setup, an April Fools’ Day prank from Xiaomi. There was no tablet, at least not the kind real fans were hoping for, much to their disappointment. While some of them were able to crack the code early, many did not.
One of them, @gsm4448, actually wrote this in response to Xiaomi’s teaser post on Twitter: “I almost spent 60k for Samsung tab. Nice to hear this news from Xiaomi. Was eagerly waiting for years.” Another user, @sumeet_srj, said, “was waiting for it from long time. Bring a affordable version for doing basic stuff of video calling and basic apps.” @tweetingdhruv meanwhile wrote, “Yeah we’re ready to keep tab on you @XiaomiIndia, You better make this happen ASAP. Excited.” Some like @alupula_vamshi had a wishlist too: “It’s better be Mi Pad 5 pro with sd 870, 8 speakers, fingerprint sensor on home button, better cameras, faster storage and ram and 67watts faster charging…not the base variant please!! If it’s the base variant it’s definitely gonna fail big time Realme pad!!”
Clearly, Xiaomi managed to make a lot of buzz out of nothing (Oh, and Nothing also has some kind of smartphone announcement scheduled for today, so better be careful!”). Tech brands doing spoofs like this on April 1 isn’t new or surprising which is why it’s always advisable to take such announcements with a pinch of salt. It’s all intended in good fun. It keeps the fun alive in this highly commoditised industry also giving us some key insights into the brands’ creative side.
The real downer though is that Xiaomi still isn’t ready to launch a tablet in India. The Mi Pad was the one and only tablet that Xiaomi ever launched here—that came way back in 2015. As things stand, there is some more waiting to go. In the meanwhile, what is officially confirmed is that Xiaomi will launch the 12 Pro in India soon, possibly within this month, so that should hopefully keep fans excited. As for a Xiaomi tablet, we’ll update you as soon as we get any information.